


What the Water Gave Me

by hatsuji (pyxz)



Series: The Eve [1]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Divergent!AU, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-18 04:51:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11867118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pyxz/pseuds/hatsuji
Summary: "Valuing knowledge above all else results in a lust for power, and that leads men into dark and empty places."Somewhere between books, secrets and brewing wars, Dauntless' most promising future leader and the son of Candor's most prolific lawyer find each other.





	1. DOG DAYS

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by the Divergent series :)

THE SKY IS GRAY TONIGHT. The Pit is dark with clouds and bright with blue light, and this makes 12 P.M. look like 6 P.M. 

“Yixing?” Jeno snaps his fingers in front of Yixing’s face. “You in there?”

Yixing blinks the daze out of his eyes and looks from the sliver of glass ceiling back to his friends. “Yeah? What? Why?" 

His friends laugh at him, and he smiles back as he usually does. 

“Kris was talking about going to the river.” 

Yixing glances at his watch, and he misses his friends’ groans that follow.

“It’s 12:45. We only have enough time to go back to class.”

Jeno rolls his eyes and their other friends look to Kris for guidance. Kris is in the grade above them, and he’s tall and broad and scary-looking enough that he can pass for a fifth grader although he’s barely ten-and-a-half years old. They like him as much as they fear him, and he approaches Yixing with his signature quietness.

This does not intimidate Yixing as it does everyone else. In fact, though it may not seem like it, Kris is his best friend. Kris squats in the empty space beside Yixing and gently grabs his wrist, the one where he wears his watch. He turns Yixing’s arm this way and that, as if he’s examining how bones work, and Yixing watches him with the same quiet curiosity that he watches most things.

 “What?” Yixing asks. No one says it out loud, but all eight kids gathered near the rock’s edge are thinking the same thing: that Kris is going to take Yixing’s watch and break it.

Instead, Kris puts Yixing’s wrist down. “We’re going to skip class, ‘Xing,” he explains. 

Yixing looks confused and a little scandalized. “What?" 

“Yeah. Come on. Let’s go swimming.”

Yixing’s eyes grow slightly bigger. “Aren’t we banned from going there? I mean, isn’t that place quarantined right now? Because of that guy who jumped into the Rush two weeks ago?" 

“That guy was an initiate trying to be brave,” Kris says, and the other kids nod along, taking his word as law. “You know how initiates from other factions are around here.

They never know where they’re going.”

Kris’ voice is always kind, soft, and steady—always suggesting rather than commanding, and Yixing thinks it’s calming. He knows people like feeling calm. He thinks maybe this is why all their friends follow him so eagerly. 

“We don’t have enough lights,” Yixing jokes. Kris is the only one who gets it, so he laughs and all the other kids follow suite.

Yixing smiles, and Kris claps his back as he gets up.

“I’ll get you all excuse notes from my dad,” he promises as everyone gets up to leave for the River.

 


	2. KNOW-IT-ALL

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At eight years old, Do Kyungsoo and Park Chanyeol already have their lives figured out.

WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS—Chanyeol thinks this is why his father likes storms so much. There’s a kind of honesty in the way typhoons don’t hold back from ravaging countries, and Candor do value honesty in _everything_. Even in very uncontrollable things such as the weather.

Chanyeol thinks there might be something wrong about that. Something stupid.

“Chanyeol?” His mother calls in her usual sing-song from downstairs. “Are you awake? Come down for breakfast, sweetie. Breakfast is ready.”

He doesn’t reply. A few minutes later, he hears footsteps. Another moment later, there’s a knock on his door.

“Chanyeol? Sweetie? Are you awake?” his mother’s voice comes again. Chanyeol pulls his comforter over his head and chooses to listen more closely to the muffled sound of rain.

“Chanyeol? Honey? Did you shower already? Are you dressed?” she asks again, then pauses to wait. Chanyeol knows she’s waiting because he can still hear her breathing from the other side of the door. He knows she won’t relent. How could she stay one of the faction’s highest paid lawyers if she relented to something as small as getting her son ready for school, after all?

He looks down at his white shirt and gray shorts.

“Yeah,” he replies, if only to get her breathing away from his door.

“Okay, well, hurry up and come down, your breakfast’s getting cold,” she says, and then he hears footsteps going down the stairs.

Outside, the rain continues to pour. Every second, it gets colder. He’s excited for school, he always is. But he buries his face into his pillow and lets lazy bones wear him down. Maybe he shouldn’t have stayed up so late reading his sister’s old science textbook.

 

+++

  

“Why were you late this morning?” Kyungsoo asks over lunch. Chanyeol’s still a little tired, so Kyungsoo’s words fly right over his head, and his eyes remain stuck on the green-and-brown of his friend’s lunch. 

Kyungsoo follows Chanyeol’s gaze. “Hey.” He hits his arm.

“Ow!” Chanyeol rubs his arm, startled awake. “Always so violent,” he pouts.

“Why were you late this morning?” Kyungsoo asks again in exactly the same tone of voice, ever-patient and religiously tolerant. Chanyeol doesn’t think he’ll ever know how Kyungsoo does it.

“I, uh… Woke up late,” he replies as he shoves a spoonful of rice and ketchup-drenched hamburger into his mouth.

“… Didn’t eat breakfast too, huh?” Kyungsoo teases him, elegantly forking a slice of sweet potato and spinach, and just as gracefully chewing on it. Chanyeol scrunches his face in disgust. 

“Ugh. You’re the only eight-year-old in the entire faction—no, in the entire _world_ that likes that stuff!”

Kyungsoo shrugs. “It feels good being able to reap exactly what I sow.”

Chanyeol looks at him for a moment.

“You perplex me,” he says.

“I did no such thing!” Kyungsoo replies, looking offended.

Chanyeol laughs—the undefeated king of vocabulary words and spelling bees. “No. It means you puzzle me. Sometimes. Confuse me,” he clarifies. 

Kyungsoo looks back at him for a moment before returning to his food. “You’re such a Know-It-All.”

“I am,” Chanyeol answers jokingly, drenching another huge slice of burger in ketchup.

“Why do you eat so much ketchup?” Kyungsoo asks after a moment.

“Because it’s my favorite condiment. And it has lycopene too—so I won’t get cancer when I’m old.”

 _Condiment. Lycopene. Cancer._ Kyungsoo stares at him again, although he knows this won’t help him understand Chanyeol or anything Chanyeol ever talks about.


	3. PROMISING, PROMISES

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re Dauntless’ most promising future leader, ‘Xing,” Kris says as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

“Excited for your Aptitude test?” Kris talks over the sound of his bare hands breaking a whole apple. There’s a crunch at the rupture, then another crunch when he bites, then a couple more when he chews.

He flicks Yixing’s forehead.

“Ow.”

“You’re spacing out again.”

“Sorry.”

Yixing puts his books down and reaches into his bag for a ham sandwich. He’s peeling back the paper wrapper when Kris talks again.

“So. Your test’s later.”

“Yeah.”

Kris scoffs. “Not like you need it.”

“ … What do you mean?” Yixing asks, his curiosity keeping his attention away from his lunch as it keeps him away from most things.

Kris doesn’t answer immediately. He finishes half of his apple, and Yixing stops thinking he’s going to answer but he doesn’t stop waiting for an answer. Kris looks at him after the little silence and seems surprised that his friend’s question isn’t rhetorical.

“You’re Dauntless’ most promising future leader, ‘Xing,” he says as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Don’t be modest and tell me you’re surprised to hear it,” Kris snickers. “You top the physical ranks _and_ the academic ranks. And I know my dad’s been to your place telling your ma and pa about the leaders’ plans.” Kris laughs again. “You know, I think my ol’ man will actually break a hip if you switch factions. He says you’ll be the best tactician the faction has seen in _decades_ , so he’s hell-bent on getting you one of those five seats.

Four. One’s mine, of course. We’ll be sitting together,” Kris grins toothily, almost excitedly, nudging Yixing’s side with an elbow. “With whoever else manages to scrape their way up. No one looks promising right now.” 

Yixing doesn’t answer. Kris finishes his apple. 

The bell rings, and Yixing just then remembers the lunch he forgot to eat. He looks down at his sandwich; Kris is already extending a hand.

“What’s that? Mayo and ham? I’ll take care of it, ‘gimme.”

“Thanks,” Yixing answers as they get up and gather themselves to return—Kris back to his classes, because he already decided on Dauntless a year ago, and Yixing to the cafeteria for his Aptitude Test.

They slide down the slide and walk out of the rusty, abandoned playground. All around them children from different factions walk and run towards the same direction.

The air vibrates with a kind of nervousness, but Yixing knows that, like all things, it’s only in his mind. He glances to Kris, his friend’s certainty almost terrifying. He glances to the people around them, their uncertainty just as daunting.


	4. MEETING EXPECTATIONS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,   
> Chanyeol travels one & Kyungsoo travels the other.

CHANYEOL stands just outside the entrance doors, endlessly scanning the faces of kids pouring out, waiting for Kyungsoo. His little friend is hard to miss, he thinks, because no one else has that round a face with those thick a lip. 

Finally, he sees his friend walking out. 

“’Soo! Kyungsoo!” Chanyeol runs up the stairs against the crowd, tall as a building and impossible to miss. 

“Hey!” he greets, “How’d your test go?”

“Fine. You?” Kyungsoo answers, talking as they walk. He thanks Chanyeol for holding his bag and slings it over his shoulder.

“What’d you get?” Chanyeol asks excitedly, ignoring his question completely.

“What? You know we’re not supposed to tell.”

“Aw, come on. I’m your best friend—I won’t gawk. I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”

Momentarily, Kyungsoo finds it tempting. “You know what I got,” is all he says.

“A—“ Chanyeol pauses to lower his voice to a whisper. “Amity? You’re really going to Am—“ Kyungsoo hits his arm so, he stops talking.

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo answers after a pause too long. “And you’re…?”

Chanyeol stares a moment, then catches on and nods happily. “Yeah. Yeahyeah."

Kyungsoo nods. They walk until they reach the waiting shed.

“Well, I guess we’re both getting what we want,” Kyungsoo says. Then, he extends a hand towards his friend, smiling slightly. “This is how they do it, right?” Chanyeol smiles back, nods, and firmly shakes his friend’s hand once.

“Congratulations to us, Park Chanyeol.”


	5. THE CHOOSING CEREMONY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing doesn't wince when he draws his blood. He doesn't wince when he makes his choice.

THE DAY of the Choosing Ceremony comes too fast. Yixing steps into the train that will take them to the Hub, both feet planted on metal ground, but he feels as if he’s standing on two completely opposite sides of a very wide spectrum.

He spends most of the ride in silence, occasionally nodding along to something his father says, occasionally laughing along to something Kris says. He doesn’t hear much. He doesn’t choose to hear much.

Selective auditory attention. It has saved his life countless times. 

His mother is quiet just like him. Yixing thinks she doesn’t choose to hear much either.

He’s thankful for the noise of chattering children that fills the halls of the hub. The buzzing doesn’t stop even as they enter the venue, as they hug, say their momentary goodbyes, and believe in what they want to believe.

Yixing’s parents, Kris, and all the other Dauntless that came, fill up their designated section. Yixing walks to the front to line up with the other initiates.

Abnegation is the year’s host; so he listens to a big man, dressed in gray, with a thick beard and dull blue eyes, talk about the history of the factions. Then, this man is calling names, and one by one, the children lined up in front of the stage disappear. Some decisions lead to cheers, others lead to cries. 

He watches as a Dauntless kid, Kim Kai, spills his blood on stone instead of coal. Yixing has seen Kai around and trained with him a few times, but he doesn’t know anything about him at all. But still, Yixing can’t help his curiosity, he glances to the dark Dauntless crowd to see a reaction. 

Kai’s parents must not have come, because no one snarls or sniffles.

“Zhang Yixing,” the Abnegation leader calls.

And with frightening ease, Yixing lets his blood spill into Erudite’s basin of clear, blue water.


	6. TAKING TRAINS TO TOMORROWS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Courage meets Honesty and decides to be smart.

CHANYEOL’S mother doesn’t cry when her son drops his blood into water instead of glass. His father doesn’t shout. His sister doesn’t scowl.

He already told them the night before. Candor value honesty in everything, after all.

They’re sad, but they hug him, and tell him they love him, and that they will see him soon. His sister jokes that he made a mistake, and she tells him that Toben will miss him. 

Chanyeol thinks about the little brown teacup poodle he left behind in Candor as he settles in his seat on the train to Erudite. Instead of feeling sad, he feels a little excited.

Two years ago, his mother brought home the smallest poodle Chanyeol had ever seen in his life. His mother said that her friend, an Erudite, owned one of these ridiculously small dogs and had given her one of the puppies as a gift. Chanyeol knows that he has been dreaming of Erudite for much longer than two short years, but Toben’s arrival only solidified his decision to change factions. 

Now he can know how Toben came to be, he thinks. Now he can know where things come from and how they work without the scrutiny and judgment that Candor so infamously bestows upon all things.

“Hi, is this seat taken?” a soft voice chimes; Chanyeol looks up to see a Dauntless boy. Although surprised by this unusual pairing of character traits, he shakes his head and smiles politely. 

“Thanks,” the Dauntless boy smiles back. Chanyeol notices the dimple on his cheek. The Dauntless boy sits down and takes off his black jacket to reveal a blacker shirt underneath. Chanyeol almost wants to laugh.

“That’s some dimple you got there. Is that real?”

The Dauntless boy snickers. “They don’t lie about you Candors and your _honesty_.”

Chanyeol belatedly realizes the absence of his tact, and he apologizes for it by grinning along. “We don’t lie, either.”

The Dauntless boy chuckles at this. “I’m Yixing. You?”

Chanyeol opens his mouth to speak, but closes it again and holds a hand out for Yixing to shake. “I’m Chanyeol. Nice to meet you.”

Yixing looks at his hand, then raises an eyebrow at him.

“This is how they do it in Erudite,” Chanyeol tells him. “At least that’s what I’ve read. And my mom has a lot of Erudite friends who come over and they always greet her like this. You—“

Yixing reaches for his hand and firmly shakes it once. Chanyeol spies a little grin playing along his new friend’s lips, and he narrows his eyes jokingly at it.

“You makin’ fun of me, Yixing? You already knew that, didn’t you?”

Yixing grins. “Yeah. I was teasing you.

Nice to meet you too, Chanyeol.”


	7. BLUE BUILDINGS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Erudite headquarters is big, blue, and made of glass.

The bright blue of Erudite headquarters comes into view just as Yixing wakes up. The train ride was unexpectedly long, but now the station is nearing, and he shakes his head awake. Beside him, Chanyeol, the Candor boy, stirs awake, as well. There’s a quietness in the train that dissipates as people awake; chatter starts to fill the train car as people peek outside the glass.

It’s not uncommon to visit other factions, but Yixing supposes not everyone has had the privilege or experience. This isn’t the first time he’s seeing Erudite. He has been here twice before—once when he was five-years-old to visit a relative, and another when he was eleven to visit the library. It was an optional school trip, and although none of his friends and trainers saw any use for it, his parents agreed that it would be good for him. So he rode a yellow bus with twenty-five other students from different factions and visited the big cement building near the heart of the city. Erudite’s library was decorated with sophisticated sculptures both inside and out, and the interior looked much larger than the exterior. It seemed to him, back then, a kind of architectural marvel. He was amazed, but never had the chance to tell anyone of his amazement.

He takes a chance with Chanyeol.

“Blue,” he comments wittily. “Have you been here before?”

“Oh, yeah, lots of times,” Chanyeol answers, “My mom is a lawyer. She comes here a lot for research and that kind of stuff. She used to let me tag along if I didn’t have school.” Chanyeol chuckles fondly and longingly; the sound of his emotions rings in Yixing’s ears. Dauntless aren’t heartless, and he’s not really Dauntless anymore, but spending sixteen years surrounded by no-nonsense people who tend to shove unneeded emotions under the carpet makes him a little irritable to Chanyeol’s sentiment now.

Fortunately, it’s fleeting; when Yixing looks back to his seatmate, Chanyeol seems more excited than anything else again. His eyes practically _sparkle_ with anticipation. Yixing thinks there’s something funny about that, so he laughs.

Chanyeol looks at him like he’s odd. “… Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Yixing replies, laugh subsiding into a grin. He puts his jacket back on, noticing the stark contrast of light-and-dark between his clothes and Chanyeol’s. He wants to laugh again, but he quietly fixes his collar instead.

Chanyeol doesn’t immediately stop looking at him like he’s a little weird, but Yixing doesn’t notice. The train horn blares, then a few moments later, the train car stops. People start pouring out of the doors. Chanyeol and Yixing are the last ones out.

Yixing takes in a deep breath when he steps out onto the station. He pauses to look around, and Chanyeol awkwardly stands beside him, waiting for him.

“Is it your first time here?” Chanyeol asks.

Yixing shakes his head, and then starts walking with the crowd to the stairs. “I’ve been here before,” he says. “It’s just different, that’s all. From Dauntless, I mean.”

“Why?” Chanyeol asks, falling into the groove of conversation and the rhythm of feet. “How does the Dauntless train station look like?”

“A rooftop,” Yixing says, and when he says it he looks at Chanyeol’s face to see his reaction. Chanyeol’s emotions are as easy to read as a children’s book, all big, bold-faced letters and pictures—although, he is Candor, so Yixing isn’t so surprised by this. “We, uh, jump out of a moving train usually. Sometimes we can take the train on the ground, but that’s really for fence guards.”

“You… jump…? Out of a moving train…?!” Even Chanyeol’s steps slow down to express his surprise, and his eyes glimmer with the delight of learning something new.

“Yeah. You’ve never read about it?” Yixing grins. The textbooks say that Dauntless are the brave, the fearless, and the courageous. They are exceptional fighters, and they protect the city. They have a knack for dangerous stunts—scaling buildings and wielding guns. But no history teacher ever talks about how the children jump off full-speed trains to get to and from school, and how they _play_ in the abandoned theme parks that no one dares to go to.

Chanyeol shakes his head, and he opens his mouth to speak, but a man in blue, standing at the end of the stairs, cuts him off.

“Welcome, initiates,” the man greets pleasantly, scanning the colorful crowd for a moment. Yixing does a little scan of his own. To his right, it’s mostly blue: the Erudite-born, loyal to their families and content with their lives. Yixing thinks they’re lucky. To his right, mostly orange and a little gray: initiates from Amity and Abnegation. Of course, they would stick together. In front of him, making up the middle crowd, are a few Candors and some more Erudites. The crowd starts moving, so Yixing doesn’t get another good look, but he doesn’t think he saw another Dauntless in the crowd.

 

+++

 

Their little rainbow of a group is ushered into the glass building in the heart of the city. They’re told that it’s Erudite’s main hall, which functions as a government building, a school, and a training center for initiates. It’s huge, very bright, and outstandingly clean. The ceilings are high and made mostly of glass, and Yixing can’t stop looking everywhere. He glances towards Chanyeol, who doesn’t seem quite as awed as he is.

“You’ve been here before?” Yixing asks once again, a new curiosity with the same question.

Chanyeol nods, glancing around a little. “The basement serves as a kind of courtroom, too. You know, where they hold hearings and stuff for little crimes that don’t need to be taken to Candor. They hold _a lot_ more hearings than you would think,” Chanyeol chuckles, and Yixing finds himself listening intently. “One time, when I was twelve, my mom let me sit in the audience of a hearing. It was about this guy who hadn’t returned this library book in like, a year.” Chanyeol can’t help his chuckle again. “He looked so nervous. It was so funny. “They acquitted him,” he concludes. “Like, let him go, you know. But he was sweating through his shirt. You should’ve seen it.”

Yixing nods along and laughs along a little. He glances towards the front as they climb a flight of glass stairs and sees that the man in blue is talking about the history of Erudite. It’s nothing that he hasn’t read about before, so he turns back to Chanyeol.

“Are you into studying law?” Yixing asks.

Chanyeol almost scoffs. “Of course not. I left Candor, didn’t I? No, I, uh, I want to be a historian, kind of. Or maybe a scientist. Discover the cure for cancer and everything.”

Yixing nods, finding not only the environment incredibly refreshing, but the conversations, too.

“How about you?” Chanyeol asks. “Dauntless don’t really transfer to Erudite, usually.”

“What? Because we’re a bunch of meatheads?”

“What? No—nononono. I mean, Statistically Speaking, only one in about a hundred Dauntless will ever shift to Erudite.” Chanyeol’s voice picks up an octave, and Yixing finds it funny. He’s used to this, though: joking around and having everyone of a different faction be genuinely afraid. “I’m just saying it’s not a usual career path that you guys take, I mean—“

“I was joking,” Yixing says; Chanyeol stops blabbering. “It’s okay. I know it’s unusual too.”

They’re lead past a pair of big, sleek wooden doors and into an auditorium. The man in blue tells them to take a seat, so Yixing takes the first seat he sees and Chanyeol follows suit.

“Don’t you want to sit near the middle?” Chanyeol asks.

“You don’t have to sit with me,” Yixing says, looking at Chanyeol and waiting for his emotions to play across his face like a movie again.

“What? No—nonono. I mean—I _want_ to sit with you. I was just asking.”

Yixing grins; Chanyeol accusingly narrows his eyes at him again.

“Shh. It’s starting.”

“Welcome to Erudite, initiates,” the man in blue speaks. “My name is Lee Junsu. I will be one of your instructors during the course of your initiation.

I am very delighted to see so much diversity among our initiates this year. Rest assured, we will do all that we can to keep the initiation fair and simple. Now…”

 

+++

 

After being oriented on the initiation process and being given a few words of wisdom by one of the Erudite leaders, the initiates are shown to their dormitories: a smaller building near the main hall that looks just like a miniature version of the big building beside it. They are informed that Erudite-born and transfers must live together to ensure utmost fairness, and then they are given their room assignments.

People trade and exchange rooms as soon as they are given their assignments; Erudite kids securing rooms with their Erudite best friends. Chanyeol doesn’t care nor mind what room he ends up in, so he exchanges with whoever asks and heads to the room number in is hand once the mess of it all is over.

He doesn’t see Yixing in the chaos. He thinks maybe Yixing went ahead before anyone could ask him to trade rooms, or maybe the other kids were just too afraid to approach a Dauntless. As he steps out of the elevator into the fifth floor and walks along the halls looking for room 5F, he quietly hopes that Yixing is his surprise roommate. A familiar face would be nice.

Instead, an unfamiliar boy in blue, with blonde hair and pale skin, is sitting in one of the desks when he enters. The television is on, and the boy turns around when he hears the door open.

He doesn’t look too friendly. Chanyeol says hi anyway.

“Hey, room five-A, right?” he greets.

“Says right there,” the boy says. He turns off the television and gets up on his feet. Chanyeol doesn’t really know what to expect when his roommate starts walking towards him. He almost flinches, and his roommate looks at him like he’s weird.

“I’m not ‘gonna hit you,” the boy says, laughing a little as he picks up some bags by the door. Chanyeol hadn’t even noticed them. The boy in blue dumps the bags onto one of the beds. “I’m Sehun,” the boy introduces himself, sounding much friendlier than Chanyeol expected. “You can have the other bed.”

Sehun plops down on his bed and reads from a piece of paper identical to the one Chanyeol’s holding. “Says here I’m supposed to be rooming with a… Lee Jiwoon, Erudite.” He looks at Chanyeol up and down, narrowing his eyes like a snake sizing up its prey. “You don’t look like a Lee Jiwoon Erudite. Ji would never be caught dead in so much white after Amity Day.” Sehun chuckles, which tells Chanyeol he must be joking; Chanyeol laughs a little.

Sehun reaches for the remote control and turns the television back on. He hits pause for a moment to look at Chanyeol. “Are you ‘gonna stand there all day?” he blinks.

Chanyeol returns to his senses and closes the door behind him. He walks the short narrow hall into the room, passing some shelves and a door. The room is spacious byt not very big. It’s just enough space for two beds, two desks, two closets and two shelves. There’s a television screen mounted on the wall, and one side of the room is entirely made of glass; it looks out into buildings, streets, and faraway trees. It’s a nice view. And already, it’s clear who owns which side of the room. Sehun brought along some things with him, and Chanyeol hadn’t.

 “You don’t have anything with you?” Sehun asks. Chanyeol shakes his head.

“I thought… we weren’t allowed to bring anything.”

Sehun nods. “The rules say that, but they aren’t really strict. My older brother passed his initiation four years ago, and he must have brought his entire room with him to his dorm. He also told me the instructors do surprise room visits, and they like seeing the shelves filled up with books.” Sehun motions vaguely to all the empty shelves around them.

“Don’t worry,” Sehun continues. “I’m ‘gonna have all my books up here by next week. That should fill up about… three-fourths of the space. I’m sure you got books too. Have them delivered on Visiting Day.”

Sehun speaks with such fast certainty that Chanyeol is convinced his sixteen-year-old roommate has his entire life figured out.

“Shit—I never asked your name.”

“Chanyeol. I’m Park Chanyeol—It’s nice to meet you.”

Sehun nods. “Likewise,” he says, and Chanyeol waits for him to reach his hand out for a handshake. Instead, Sehun reaches into his bag and pulls out a bag of walnuts.

“Have a seat,” Sehun tells him, so Chanyeol sits. Sehun looks at the stylish gold watch on his wrist. “Dinner’s still in a few hours.”

Chanyeol settles on the comfortable surface of his white, empty bed. He glances at the empty shelves, at the desks waiting to be filled up, at the lady on the screen reporting news from a week ago. He looks out into the city through the blue-tinted window and excitedly thinks that these waiting halls could be his life.

 

+++

 

The crowd moves fast after the orientation. They’re ushered into a nearby building and handed room numbers. Somewhere in the chaos of children switching friends, trading rooms, and trying to determine their fates, Yixing loses Chanyeol. He thinks this is unfortunate. But he heads to the empty elevators and goes straight to the sixth floor.

Room 6A is located right beside the elevators, so he has no trouble finding it. Yixing knocks twice before putting his key in, but the door swings open before he can turn the knob.

A boy with red hair, slight eyes and a bright smile greets him from the other side. He’s dressed in mostly blue, which Yixing takes as a sign that he’s an Erudite. This is good, he thinks. Rooming with an Erudite will be good.

“Yixing!” the boy greets. Yixing smiles.

“Hi,” he greets back.

“I’m Baekhyun,” the boy introduces himself, stepping aside and opening the door wider so Yixing can come in. “So nice to meet you.

I didn’t think I’d be rooming with a _Dauntless_ ,” Baekhyun says with slight awe; smile never faltering. “This is so exciting.”

“Well… just a disclaimer that I might not be as… _exciting_ as you think. I’m pretty plain in my opinion—“

“That’s what exciting people say,” Baekhyun says, and Yixing finds himself teetering between irritation and strange endearment for this stranger who seems to mean everything he says.

“Anyway,” Baekhyun continues, sitting down on his bed. “My name is Byun Baekhyun. I’m Erudite-born, obviously. My mom’s a science teacher and my dad’s a researcher. It’s really nice to meet you, Yixing!”

Yixing has to pause to take in the _pep_. It’s both shocking and refreshing to be with someone so bright. He really didn’t think anyone could beat Chanyeol. “It’s really nice to meet you too, Baekhyun,” he replies with a little smile.

Baekhyun gasps. “You have a dimple! Did you know dimples are a muscle deformity?” he says, because he has never met anyone who wasn’t surprised to find out. Yixing already knew this, but Baekhyun seems so enthusiastic about it that he pretends he doesn’t.

“Really?”

“Yeah!—A cute one anyway. My dad’s big on genetics so.”

“That’s… amazing.”

“Isn’t it?” Baekhyun grins toothily. He turns his attention back to the television. It doesn’t seem like he has anything more to say so Yixing takes the time to get settled.

“Dinner’s in an hour, right?” he says, spotting the wall clock Baekhyun had put up.

Baekhyun nods, then proceeds to ask Yixing a million questions about the truth and untruth of Dauntless urban legends.

People do always say that Erudites are thirsty for knowledge; Baekhyun’s lips seem particularly dry.


End file.
